USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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fldoctorgirl said:
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
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If you've done Zanki for the past 2 years, 2500+ questions on uworld, both uw assessments, free 120, and im sure you used another q bank before dedicated, I don't think not doing an NBME is going to hurt you.
 
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Thank you everyone for the feedback 🙂

Deecee2DO said:
Id honestly cut 18 lol the curve is insane. 24 was hard but it was less wtf than 21 and 20. My buddy recently took 22 and said it wasnt horrible either. 23 is like 24 and 22 so do it if you feel up to it. 18 doesnt deserve your time im boycotting it lmao. Regardless they all underpredict anyways. Good thing is if you score high on them youll destroy step but if you dont it means nothing-basically my opinion on them. They just help show you your progress. The thing that helped me this time around with NBMEs is do not overthink. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck its probably a duck (its not like UW)
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Haha I'm totally boycotting the predictive power of 18 but I heard it is still good because the questions are representative of the exam? I honestly may just follow @Type2Fiber 's advice and just cut both 22 and 23, unless I have some extra time at the end and want to squeeze another exam in. I just really don't feel like I benefit too much from them so I'd rather focus on UWorld + content review.
 
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I'm fully on the "to hell with NBME" train now. I've mentioned a few times that I failed NBME 15 and its made my sad for the past 2 weeks, yadda yadda. Today I finally sat down, went through the whole exam, and calculated my percent correct. I got 71% correct. 71% is a 190 on the real deal? I'm calling major BS lol.

Feel free to correct my if I'm wrong but that just sounds absurd.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Thank you everyone for the feedback 🙂


Haha I'm totally boycotting the predictive power of 18 but I heard it is still good because the questions are representative of the exam? I honestly may just follow @Type2Fiber 's advice and just cut both 22 and 23, unless I have some extra time at the end and want to squeeze another exam in. I just really don't feel like I benefit too much from them so I'd rather focus on UWorld + content review.
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I didn't think of it that way lol if 18 is representative of actual exam questions then definitely take it. Just don't get worked up over the score-80%+ is still like 220s or something completely insane
 
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Are we supposed to expect another email from Prometric the days leading up to our exam as a confirmation? And hopefully not a cancellation email lol
 
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slowthai said:
I mean, the deck itself is 30K cards. The OG Zanki base deck is 17K and lolnotacop is 9K+. So him and his team only contributed 3-4K max. I think he even used the BG deck as a base, which would make his team's contribution even smaller.

Edit: Now that I checked his update logs, he didn't even really add many cards. He mainly just made it streamlined and organized.

I think the real tl;dr here is be a master test taker, lol. He mentioned that at the beginning, like within the first few minutes haha
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Didn't actually watch, but test taking is definitely a skill that can be learned! It just takes practice and you're going to feel worse initially when applying a new test taking routine, but it will eventually pay off.
 
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So basically what I have gathered from the last couple of weeks of score reports is that there is really no way to know, seems like predictions are kinda iffy this year for some reason-- maybe COVID and people having to deal with cancellations and taking the test after their peak? I mean there are a lot of scary posts with people scoring way below their predicted but also a good chunk of people either a little bit above or below within the CI. I don't know how to feel. I'm terrified...the predictor was making me feel calm but now I feel like it's meaningless.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Well.........crap. Someone with a 260 UWSA2 and 89th percentile UWorld got a 236..
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At this point I just want my 230 and that's it. I was kinda hoping maybe I could sneak into the 240s but after seeing this I'm right back to being ecstatic with a 230. There are still plenty of people scoring right around their predicted score or higher but it also seems like there's a lot of people who scored well below their predictor as well.
 
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GoCards05 said:
At this point I just want my 230 and that's it. I was kinda hoping maybe I could sneak into the 240s but after seeing this I'm right back to being ecstatic with a 230. There are still plenty of people scoring right around their predicted score or higher but it also seems like there's a lot of people who scored well below their predictor as well.
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Same. I just dropped my lowest UWorld block in 3+ weeks and then came on here to see these posts so now I'm fully back to low confidence lol.
 
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And then you have people like this....

--

I am absolutely 100% baffled in a good way and fairly convinced they switched my score with someone else's. Was fully preparing myself for passing-but-low, hoping for 230s.

Free 120: 76.7%

UWSA1: 230

UWSA2: 234

NBME 15: 219

NBME16: 234

NBME 17: 219

NBME 18: 226

UWorld first pass 63.4%

Score predictor: 238 (CI 229-247)


Actual: 251 ??!?

--

I have no idea what to think anymore, throwing all my thoughts out the window. May the odds be in your favor fam, definitely not changing my original 230 goal at this point as it seems so random
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
So basically what I have gathered from the last couple of weeks of score reports is that there is really no way to know, seems like predictions are kinda iffy this year for some reason-- maybe COVID and people having to deal with cancellations and taking the test after their peak? I mean there are a lot of scary posts with people scoring way below their predicted but also a good chunk of people either a little bit above or below within the CI. I don't know how to feel. I'm terrified...the predictor was making me feel calm but now I feel like it's meaningless.
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Remember what I said earlier about changing your expectations accordingly as your UW scores improve?

Yea expectations can go the other direction too apparently.. 225+ please
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Score predictor is unreliable. Wow im super upset about this. Looks like NBMEs in the 240s will safely put you in the 240s on real deal? i have no idea
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Again I'm starting to think the NBME's are the best predictors. The reason why everyone likes Uworld is because it gives you higher scores and people do better on it
 
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1591210181195.png


S H O O K

But fair point Cyrus. I'd bet this kind of fluctuation is common, just not always posted about.
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
don't let a small # of outliers worry you everybody....
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Such a good point-the people running to reddit to report are the ones that are the outliers because of their vast underprediction. I highly doubt most people are being underpredicted by 15-20 points. And almost no one is getting under their bottom 95% CI
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Such a good point-the people running to reddit to report are the ones that are the outliers because of their vast underprediction. I highly doubt most people are being underpredicted by 15-20 points. And almost no one is getting under their bottom 95% CI
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Cath Up said:
View attachment 308820

S H O O K

But fair point Cyrus. I'd bet this kind of fluctuation is common, just not always posted about.
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I mean I think its important to realize that a reddit-generated spreadsheet isn't a magical crystal ball thats going to be 100% accurate in generating scoring ranges. People will always be outliers, even if the thing was a magical ball.
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
don't let a small # of outliers worry you everybody....
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Valid point. I guess this just freaked me out because I saw it after I got crushed by 2 UWorld blocks today, fun times. But you're right, the predictor is not a magic ball either way. Either way I guess there's nothing to do but keep chugging on, whatever will be will be.
 
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Yeah I think I mightve been an outlier tbh. I feel like I vastly underperformed on exam day and plus my test was pretty hard... I really think it had to do with being required to wear a mask so if you can please start doing your UW blocks/NBMEs with a mask on. And, I had the habit of checking my answers on all of my practice tests before submitting them and I feel like that really takes you out of an exam taking mentality, so if you can please dont check your answers while you're doing an exam lmao. I would do all of my UW blocks on tutor mode and obviously when you're taking the actual thing you wont have that immediate feedback of whether you got that question right/wrong. Tutor mode is great when you're using U world as a learning tool but I'd recommend atleast doing the last 20% of UW on timed/random.
 
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on another note, do you guys think its important to know the nerve roots for all the brachial plexus nerves? I haven't had a question specifically on it yet, but every time I read the explanations and they mention it im like yeah I didn't know that
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
on another note, do you guys think its important to know the nerve roots for all the brachial plexus nerves? I haven't had a question specifically on it yet, but every time I read the explanations and they mention it im like yeah I didn't know that
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I would. I had a question on this yesterday actually lol, and I've had a couple of more I think. It seems like the brachial plexus is the one nerve thing they really seem to care about the details, so maybe just a quick refresh of it?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I would. I had a question on this yesterday actually lol, and I've had a couple of more I think. It seems like the brachial plexus is the one nerve thing they really seem to care about the details, so maybe just a quick refresh of it?
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yeah youre probably right, id be kicking myself if I get there and get questions on it and didn't take the 20 minutes to study it
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
on another note, do you guys think its important to know the nerve roots for all the brachial plexus nerves? I haven't had a question specifically on it yet, but every time I read the explanations and they mention it im like yeah I didn't know that
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There was a brachial plexus diagram on NBME 18 where you had to identify the correct nerve branch based on the symptoms in the vignette. Definitely worth brushing up on imo.
 
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The only thing I'd like to add to the low score thing is that the people whose scores are coming out now were those taking it right as corona madness got bad. 3-4 weeks ago was when there were all the mass cancellations, sites that were not real, etc. May or may not be playing a big role in how everyone performed.
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
The only thing I'd like to add to the low score thing is that the people whose scores are coming out now were those taking it right as corona madness got bad. 3-4 weeks ago was when there were all the mass cancellations, sites that were not real, etc. May or may not be playing a big role in how everyone performed.
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This is a good point. I saw numerous posts from people around that time getting canceled and literally rescheduling for a few days later rather than a few weeks since they just wanted to be done. That definitely could be a factor.
 
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one more thought. May was also possibly a weird overlap month. You had people who were supposed to take it in march and april and suddenly got an extra two months to study. combined with people for who it was their normal time.
 
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Its 3 days before my COMLEX and 7 before my USMLE. I feel like I've got senioritis. Got 230 on NBME 18 last sunday and was hitting 120 UWorld a day on a second run-through, but I think I've had it.

Planning to taper down to 80 a day and just do my Anki without content review so I can stay rested.

Anyone else feeling this, or have advice for the week of?
 
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Osteosaur said:
Its 3 days before my COMLEX and 7 before my USMLE. I feel like I've got senioritis. Got 230 on NBME 18 last sunday and was hitting 120 UWorld a day on a second run-through, but I think I've had it.

Planning to taper down to 80 a day and just do my Anki without content review so I can stay rested.

Anyone else feeling this, or have advice for the week of?
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Im splitting first aid up and re-reading all of it in the last week.
 
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Osteosaur said:
Its 3 days before my COMLEX and 7 before my USMLE. I feel like I've got senioritis. Got 230 on NBME 18 last sunday and was hitting 120 UWorld a day on a second run-through, but I think I've had it.

Planning to taper down to 80 a day and just do my Anki without content review so I can stay rested.

Anyone else feeling this, or have advice for the week of?
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I'm finishing UWorld this weekend (Step is June 12 followed by COMLEX on June 22) and I am taking UWSA2 and Free 120 on Sunday. My plan for this last week is very similar to yours. I'm going to do 40 per day of my incorrects after I finish to stay in question-answering mode and then do Anki because the questions I miss are often Anki factoids that I just forgot and I haven't had time to do all of my reviews every day. There's a couple of content areas I need to review so I will likely do that through B&B and/or Pathoma real quick next week and then will be sure to read through Pathoma CH 1-3 since that's apparently very high yield.
 
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Osteosaur said:
Its 3 days before my COMLEX and 7 before my USMLE. I feel like I've got senioritis. Got 230 on NBME 18 last sunday and was hitting 120 UWorld a day on a second run-through, but I think I've had it.

Planning to taper down to 80 a day and just do my Anki without content review so I can stay rested.

Anyone else feeling this, or have advice for the week of?
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FInished UW last week and now I'm in my final week. I've been continuing doing 120 Q's a day (2 Amboss blocks and 1 UW incorrect block) and I've found it to be helpful so far. Just my experience, but since I did UW all in the last month, I still remember a lot of the questions and my incorrects. Not that I'm getting all of my incorrects correct (~80%), but I've found my 2 blocks of new questions from Amboss to be more helpful and keeping me ready for new questions.

Also, just got an 85% on Free 120! Thought the questions were very fair and straightforward. Was a little rattled from the crazy score reports early today, so I marked like 11/20 on the first half of the block lol, but slowly calmed down and got my mind right for the rest of the exam. Honestly just need to stay calm during test day and trust in the work that's been put in
 
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Sh** just got real: scheduled in ~5 hours of content review/day between Pathoma (all of it) and B&B (weak subjects) starting tomorrow. Will have 2 full passes of Pathoma done before test day, plus will re-watch chapters 1-3 a couple of days before my exam. I also did 1 pass of Pathoma throughout the year. For some reason my Pathoma won't load any of the videos, like when I click on the chapter it just loads to a blank screen. I tried emailing them so hopefully it's fixed by tomorrow.

These next 3 weeks are are going to be crazy, but it's my fault for procrastinating and not starting my content review earlier. Just don't want to have any regrets when this is all said and done: at least this way if I do end up scoring way off my prediction, I'll know I gave it my all. I can't stand reading FA so I don't plan on touching it-- figure between UWorld, Pathoma, and all of Zanki I should have everything covered. Today sucked but this lit a fire under my a** and I'm ready to get this crap over with.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Sh** just got real: scheduled in ~5 hours of content review/day between Pathoma (all of it) and B&B (weak subjects) starting tomorrow. Will have 2 full passes of Pathoma done before test day, plus will re-watch chapters 1-3 a couple of days before my exam. I also did 1 pass of Pathoma throughout the year. For some reason my Pathoma won't load any of the videos, like when I click on the chapter it just loads to a blank screen. I tried emailing them so hopefully it's fixed by tomorrow.

These next 3 weeks are are going to be crazy, but it's my fault for procrastinating and not starting my content review earlier. Just don't want to have any regrets when this is all said and done: at least this way if I do end up scoring way off my prediction, I'll know I gave it my all. I can't stand reading FA so I don't plan on touching it-- figure between UWorld, Pathoma, and all of Zanki I should have everything covered. Today sucked but this lit a fire under my a** and I'm ready to get this crap over with.
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I agree on FA. The only time I use it is when I'm reviewing UWorld and need a quick refresh on something I missed. I wish I had time for another pass of content as I've only done one pass of B&B, Pathoma and Sketchy throughout the year and part of dedicated. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me on test day. I've been relying heavily on UWorld and Zanki to solidify everything for me.
 
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All the posts of low scores scared me into doing NBME 16 today lol. Hopefully I wont fail this one....

Just started block 4, will keep yall updated.

One thing for sure, I'm going to regret this decision since I still have 700 anki reviews to do tonight
 
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